Rolling Out the Old Year

Okay, so I've neglected my cyber life shamelessly. Meatspace demanded my attention for the last week or so. Okay, the entire month of December was a wash. But I've been busy.

Christmas was great. I went to the Christmas Eve service at church and made it home in time to enjoy the go out on the lawn with my husband and kids and view the full moon through my son's telescope. While we were on the lawn, Santa came by to visit on the fire engine. It's a great fundraiser for the VFD and the kids love sitting in the engine and running the sirens.

It was a little bittersweet because my eldest informed me that he knows Santa is pretend but he likes it anyway. This happened without fuss or drama or a big revelation, just the creeping reality that a fat man in a red suit probably couldn't visit every chimney on planet Earth, even with magic reindeer. But we had a great day and everyone got lots of loot and then we all convened at my sisters for a family get together.

This weekend I ended the year like I started it, with a rejection. It was a bummer because my story had made it to the final cuts for an anthology, but the editor sent me an email to say that although they liked it, it just didn't "fit" into the final collection. Oh well. Something more to submit again in 2008. In fact, the weekend was very busy. I celebrated my 15th wedding anniversary, went to a funeral for a friend's mother, overslept and missed Sunday School (and I'm the teacher, oops), and something else. I bought something. I have a new ride.

It's big and shiny and cherry red. I've always dreamed of owning one like this and it's finally mine. It seats three, although more can ride if I shift the panels. It has a changing room and drawers and a place for hay. It's a slant load, but converts into an open stock. 16 feet of beauty! My kids will be riding in style, that's for sure. By now you've probably guessed that I'm talking about a horse trailer.

I don't have to borrow my neighbor's trailer to go someplace. Oh yeah, life is good.

I'll have a special Post-Christmas Kitteh Song for you as a tasty and nootrishus treat tomorrow. Have a wonderful New Year.

The Greatest of These

Advent ends tonight, which is a good thing because I'm terrible at waiting. I'm ready for it to be Christmas now. In a few minutes, I'll leave for a Christmas Eve Service at my church. For the last four Sundays, we have lit a candle for advent. Each candle celebrates one of the reasons Christ came into the world. First came the candles of Joy, Hope and Peace. This Sunday was the candle of LOVE, the ultimate meaning and purpose behind Christmas. So my wish for you this Christmas Eve is that you experience all of these, but most especially Love.

I Cor. 13 (RSV) If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

3 If I give away all I have and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful;

5 It is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

6 It does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

13 So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

So everyone have a wonderful, blessed Christmas and....

Twas Teh Nite B4 Catmus

This one was a ridiculous amount of work to do, but also one of the most fun. I have several more kitteh surprises between now and Christmas. But for now.....

Oh hai. Wuz nite B4 Catmus and all thru haus
No one wuz busy, not even bad maus.
Ceiling cat wuz hiding up high sum where
Hoping Santy Paws soon be dere

All gud kittehs were asleep in dere beds
Tasty and nootrishus thoughts dances in dere heads
Even teh lolrus and kitten who haz a hat
Had settled in fer a nice happy nap

Oh noes! Outside such a clatter
I goez to window to see whut da matter
Whut to my wundring eye appears
But invisible slay and invisible reindeer

And dere was a critter wif teeth an sharp claws
I knew rite away he was old Santy Paws
An faster than Supercat, his hoomans they came
And he squeaked an he squeaked as he calleded dem by name

On Wordsmith! On, Jeanne, now! Carrie, A.J. and Tori!
On, PeeDee! On Kristine! On Ferret and Lori!
Up to the rooftop the hoomans dey flu
With a slay full of cheezburgers, an Santy Paws too.

An den in a moment I hears such a fuss
The hoomans say all Ur cheezburgers R belong to us
I goez back inside cuz I hearz a sound
Oh hai! Down chimney comes Santy Pawz wif a bound

Sneaky kitteh crept up close cuz he smellz a cheezburger
Hiz clothes wuz all furry, but dey had a gud flavor.
Wuz tasty. And nootritishus.
Santy Pawz wuz delishus.

So teh lolrus and kittehs getz burgerz from hiz sack
And den dey goez back to dere nap.
Mah belleh all full an iz quiet again in haus.
Who knew that Santy Paws wuz a maus?

Hope U had fun! KTHXBAI!

A blog about doing nothing

I have accomplished nothing today. Sure, it's only 11:00 a.m., but I've been up since 6:00. I got the kids fed, dressed and off to school. I've watched some T.V. I've taken a bath. Read some blogs. Said hi to a few online friends. Listened to a podcast. That pretty much sums it up and is exactly the reason that the blog and my computer went dark for almost a week.

It's so easy to get sucked in and I'm horrible about chasing the latest shiny to catch my eye. I've been tempted to try the Penman Shipwreck, but I'm afraid that for me, it would be another shiny. I would find myself obsessing over how to count my words and my pages and totaling them constantly and perhaps this pen would work better, etc… You get the picture. That's how it would be for me.

I've got a lot to accomplish in January. I need to be querying First Ghost and to polish and submit some of my short stories that have been lingering in limbo. I should be able to do these things and still participate in writing a new novel, but I know that I can't. I have a set amount of time and I do best if I focus on one or two things. I tend to be very scatterbrained and to take on too many tasks.

So I'm going to stay on the sidelines which is hard for me. I love to play. I love to compete and push myself. But this is my dose of reality. I'm easily distracted (who am I kidding? I LIVE for distraction.)

Bad kitteh. No shiny for you.

Now I'm going to do laundry and write.

Oh--fun stuff to do: Check out AJ's first podcast!

I've been Tagged

Okay, I gave myself a timeout from my computer. There were a lot of reasons for this, some personal and some writerly, but they are many and boring. I'm back like a bad White Elephant gift and blogging with a cat in my lap.

I started cruising a few blogs to see what folks were up to and discovered that I've been tagged by Ed. I'm supposed to list five odd random facts about myself. So here goes:

Five things you would never know unless I was goofy enough to tell you.

1. The quickest verdict I ever got in court was a seven minute Life Sentence on a murderer. He was a very bad man and deserved it, but we sent the jury back to deliberate, I went to the restroom, and put a burrito in the microwave. It dinged and the jury buzzed.

2. I was once a three time Hog Calling champion. Sooooooowweeeeeeeeeeeeee! Pigpigpig. That's all I'm going to say on the subject.

3. I'm double jointed. I can bend my thumb flat against the back of my wrist. My pinky too. I used to be able to do all my fingers, but age and arthritis have changed that.

4. I love Spongebob Squarepants. I think I've seen all the episodes a zillion times, but my favorite episode EVAH would have to be the one where he goes to live with the jellyfish.

5. One of my best friends in high school had a pet ferret named Fred who loved to drink beer. If you left your beer unattended, it was ferret chow. I don't know how many times I got drunk with that ferret. *disclaimer* beer is not a recommended drink for high schoolers or ferrets.

So there you are. Five goofy things. I'm supposed to tag folks, but I'm late and everyone is probably already tagged, except I didn't see that AJ was tagged, so if you haven't been then you are and if you are or rather were then nevermind.

PS: I got a monster amount of writing stuff done while on my time out, but I missed everyone terribly!

I Can Haz Charlz Dickenz?

A Tail of Two Kittehs



Oh hai. Dis kitteh so speshul.
Dis kitteh failz.

Dis kitteh smart.

Dis kitteh, not so much.

Innocent kitteh iz belifing. Cynic kitteh is bored wit U already.

Dis kitteh haz lightbulb. Let him show U it. Other kitteh haz no picktur for him. Iz all dark.

Lolrus haz a buck. Noooo! They stolded his bucket.

Nuff said.

Dis kitteh can haz cheezburger.

Dees kittehs get nun. So sad. Iz tragedee.

Oh hai. Dis de end part. Hope U enjoy teh kittehs. Waz fun 2 do.

Iz a far, far better thing this kitteh do than he evah doez B4. He goez home now.

KTHXBAI.

The Fred Pledge

Fred lived large. He was a small dog, but you couldn’t prove it by him. He found me on the streets and charmed his way into my minivan as a young pup. As far as I know, we were the first – and only – permanent home Fred ever had. It wasn’t until later that I found out he was on the hit list of animal control as a beggar and a nuisance around town. He was considered quite a mischief maker. I am certain this was a wholly deserved reputation.

He loved his new comfy life. When the weather turned stormy, Fred would sit at the back door, watching rain cascade. Then he would turn his back and settle onto the couch next to me with a contented sigh.

He fit into our lives seamlessly. Jack Russells aren’t known for their patience, but Fred adored children. My husband coached soccer and the team practiced at our house. Fred became the team mascot. It was impossible to keep him inside if there were children outside. He would stand at the front window, paws on the glass, throw his head back and howl piteously. When my boys went to bed, he stayed with them until they were asleep. Then he would sleep between my husband and I. He got his very own pillow.

Fred loved life. He was always in the middle of everything that happened, especially if it was a fight. If other dogs or even cats got into a skirmish, Fred jumped into the fray for the sheer pleasure of scrapping. He did his best to dig to China. I never really understood the phrase that a terrier was “going to the ground” until I saw him do it. Give the dog five seconds and he had a hole deep enough to vanish in. He loved to roll in my rosemary bushes until he broke off the branches and left the hedges lopsided. Darn dog.

True to his terrier heritage, Fred was an exuberant, hardy big dog in a small body. But he was a hard dog to control. He did what he wanted. Keeping him in the yard was impossible. He dug like the terrier he was, jumped fences, climbed trees, squeezed between pickets in the fence, chewed his way out of leashes or dog crates. The dog had more tricks than Houdini. A collar? He wore it when he wanted to. If he wanted it off? It was coming off. Mostly he wore it.

But living life this way has its risks and Fred’s glorious run came to an end on December 07, 2004. It was a pretty nice day, but I was running late coming home from work. My son had to be back up at the school for the Christmas production of Frosty the Snowman. I rushed home and ran inside to grab up my son’s costume. I should have simply hurried down the street to my parent’s home to grab up the kids, but I didn’t. I had a bad feeling.

Fred had a favorite trick. When I drove up, he would meet me by the door, grinning as if to say “I can get out anytime I want.” And he could. He did. Including on that December day.

When I drove up, I didn’t see him. I ran inside, got the things I needed and came back out. Still no Fred. A frantic search of my backyard confirmed that Fred was, in fact, missing. Not that this was that unusual. He did that from time to time, but never for more than a few hours. And yet, I had that feeling, the bad one. I went searching for him and on a hunch I drove the acre down to the road.

I had driven by his body when I came home and never realized it. He was in the tall grass in the ditch across from my house, cold and stiff. The only indication that he had suffered trauma was the thin trail of blood from his open mouth. His body looked as if it was frozen in mid run. I’m sure he chased a squirrel or rabbit across the street right in front of a car.

I cried and then cursed him for having the gall to die right before the much anticipated school program. I concealed my grief from the kids until after we got home. I'm sure the other parents thought I was Emo Mom. During Frosty, I spontaneously burst into tears several times. They probably thought I was just moved by the show. Either that, or I needed medication.

Fred is buried under an apple tree in the backyard. I’m sure that Fred had no regrets. With apologies to Frank Sinatra, he did it his way. He lived la vida grande, if only for a short while. If he saw a mud puddle, he rolled in it. Food hit the floor? It was his. If a squirrel crossed his path, he chased it. There wasn't a fence that could hold him.

That’s how I want my life to be, without fences. I don’t want to live without risks. I want to roll in the mud puddles and chase the squirrels. I want to be exuberantly alive, like Fred. So that is my New Year's Resolution. I’m taking the Fred Pledge.

I will not wait for opportunities to find me, but find them myself. I resolve to kiss my husband and children every day. I will take time to read and sip tea. I will talk to friends more often. I'll query my books until the agents beg me to stop. I will live and love and laugh exuberantly. And if, perchance, I see a mud puddle, I won't pass up the chance to roll.